Storage-battery plate.



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PATBNTBD MAY 9, 1905.

L e w C. H. WHITING.

STORAGE BATTERY PLATE.

APPLICATION FILED TUNE 25,1904..

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CHARLES H. l/VHIIING, OF NENV YORK, N. Y.

STOHGIE-'BTTEHY FLllTE..

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 789,514, dated May 9,1905.

Application filed June 25, 1904. Serial No. 214,134.

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Be it known that l, (luARLus H. VnrrrNe, a citizen of the United States,residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York,have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Storage-BatteryPlates,of which the fol lowing is a specification.

This invention relates to storage-battery plates or grids made thin andlight to diminish the dead-weight and at the same time maintain thenecessary rigidity and solidity of the plate or grid as a whole; and theinvention pertains to that type of thin and light plates or gridsconsisting of a plurality of strips or or bars united with an end piece.the strips or bars having the receiving-surfaces for the active materialrunning parallel with the outer side faces of the end piece of the plateor grid, such type of plate or grid being' shown in the Letters Patentto Achille ll/leygret, No. 760,897, dated May 9A, 1964. Theeffectiveness of this type of plate or grid having depending strips witha delinite space of separation between their side edges has been fullytested and found to be practical in use. It has been found, however,more particularly in connection with plates or grids having the stripsor bars of some length, that unless great care is taken in applying theactive matter or material the strips or bars will slightly flex or bend,so as not to lie in the same vertical plane, and also will in removingfrom the mold when east often have the equidistance of the strips orbars disturbed, which while not a detriment to the use of the plate orgrid requires more care and attention in making the grids and applyingthe active material thereto.

The object of the present invention is to insure the maintenance of thestrips or bars in the same parallel plane one with the other and withoutany liability of warping or curving out of a true parallelism for all ofthe strips or bars; and to this end the invention consists in tyingtogether the adjoining side edges of the several strips or bars in suchmanner as not to destroy the effectiveness of the delinite separation ofone strip or bar from its adjacent strip or bar, as hereinafter moreparticularly described, and pointed out in the claims.

ln the drawings, Figure l is a side elevation of a plate or grid withoutthe active matter or material applied thereto and having the dependingstrips or bars tied together, so as to be held in the saine parallelplane by a eross--tie at the lower end, one cross-tie in eachseparating-space between the strips or bars; Fig. 2, a sectionalelevation on line 2 of Fig'. l looking in the direction of the arrow;Fig. 3, a similar view to Fig. l, showing a plurality of cross-ties ineach separating-space between the several strips or bars of the plate orgrid; Fig. el, a sectional elevation on line 4 of Fig. 3 looking in thedirection of the arrow, and Fig. 5 a side elevation showing the lowerend of a plate or grid having' its receiving-faces formed withrectangular pockets or recesses and having a continuous cross-tie at thelower end by which the strips or bars will loe held parallel one withthe other.

The plate or grid shown is of a rectangular forni and is preferably madeof thin metal cast, stamped, or otherwise shaped into form. Theconstruction of plate shown has an upper end piece (t, which furnishes asupport for the depending strips or bars 71, the end piece a and stripsor bars constituting the plate or grid as a whole. rl`he outer sidesurfaces or faces of the end piece and the strips or bars are in thesame plane, and leach strip or bar has therein a series of openings orperforations c, which furnish passage-ways between the two oppositefaces of each strip or bar for applying' the active matter or materialwhich when spread on the two faces of each strip or bar passes throughthe openings or perforations, thus forming a neck or web by which theactive material will be held firmly in place; but instead of the body ofeach strip or bar having openings or perforations, as shown, such bodycould be otherwise made so as to present cavities or spaces to receiveand retain the active matter or material.

The end piece a and each strip or bar have a border ridge or rib d,which serves to strengthen the plate or grid as a whole and adds to therigidity of such plate when made of thin material, and these borderridges or ribs also form channels or depressions in which the activematter or material is spread on both sides of the plate or grid and isheld lCO in place against sidc and end displacement by the ridges orribs. The depending strips or bars are definitely separated one from theother by an intervening slot e, extending from the lower edge ot' theend piece a the full length of the strips or bars, separating' thevertical or longitudinal ,edges of the strips one from the other. Thisslot e between the vertical or longitudinal edges of the strips or barsshould be of a suiiicient width to subdivide the area of active matterinto divisions each separate and distinct from the other, by whicharrangement the expansion and contraction ot the active material on onestrip or bar will not be transmitted to the companion strip or bar andetfect a loosening of the active matter or material on the severalstrips or bars. The expansion and contraction of the active materialwill only extend over the dimensions of each strip or bar, thus reducingthe expansion and contraction to a minimum as compared to a plate orgrid in which the body is continuous or in one piece.

The rigidity of the strips or bars is sufficient under ordinaryconditionsto prevent the side warping or ileXing of the strip or bar, soas to be out of parallel with the remaining strips or bars; but wherethe strips or bars are of some length in order to have a positiveassurance that the strips or bars will not warp or curve out of truealinement some means should be employed for maintaining the alinement ofthe bars without affecting the definite separation of one strip or barfrom the other. This maintenance of the true parallelism or alinement ofthe strips or bars with each other is the object of the presentinvention and is attained by tying one depending strip or bar to itsadjacent strip or bar by a ligament or cross-tie, which will leave thedefinite space or separation virtually intact. This ligament orcross-tie f can be arranged in various ways to attain the result sought.As shown in Figs. l and 2, the ligament or cross-tie f is located at thebottom of each defining-space e and unites the lower end ot each stripor bar to the lower end of its adjacent stripor bar, with the resultthat the strips or bars are united at their upper end and also at theirlower end, with the definite space between the strips or bars remainingin its t'ull effectiveness, thus insuring the maintenance of the stripsor bars in true parallelism or alinement and against warping or curving,for one or more of the strips or bars to be out of parallelism oralinement. In Figs. 3 and 4L a plurality oi ligaments or cross-ties fare provided, which ligaments or cross-ties are so arranged as to leavethe etiectiveness of the definite-spaced separation of one strip or barfrom another intact. The plurality of ligaments or crossties f in theconstruction shown in Figs. 3 and 4t is more especially intended for usewith plates having strips or bars of great length, thus insuring thestrips or bars against flexing' or bending, so as to be out ot a trueparallelism or alinement to an extent that will impair the etliciency ofthe battery-plate in use and the maintenance of the strips or bars inparallelism or alinement in shaping or casting the grid and in applyingthe active matter or material. As shown in Fig` 5, the ligament 0rcross-tie is in the shape of a rib extending continuously across thelower ends of all the strips or bars, which ligament or cross-tie faffords the same protection against warping or curving of the severalstrips or bars out of parallelism or alinement as does the individualligament or crosstie in each space c of the construction shown in Figs.l and 2, the ligament or cross-tief of Fig. 5 serving the same purposeand attaining the same end with the same result as do the ligaments orcross-ties in the construction of Figs. l and 2.

It will be seen that with the present invention a grid for astorage-battery plate is furnished in which there is a plurality ofstrips or bars united with an end piece and detinitely spaced apart orseparated from each other a small distance, which strips or bars aremaintained in parallelism or alinement and against curving or warping bythe tying together ot` the several strips or bars, and that such tyingtogether does not impair the eli'ectiveness and operativeness of theplate as a whole, having its receiving-face made up ot' a plurality otlstrips or bars which present each an area ot' receiving' faces orsurfaces for the active material that will prevent the effects ofexpansion and contraction extending from one strip or bar to anotherstrip or bar. The liability of any curving or warping or iieXing orbending that would break the parallelism or alinement of the severalstrips or bars one with the other is eiiectually guarded against, andthis without any deteriorating effects on the denite spacing' apart ofthe plurality of strips or bars. The active material can be applied withthe assurance that when the plate as a whole is iinished the severalstrips or bars will be in parallelism or alinement onewith the other andwill be maintained throughout their entire length equidistant apartwithout any wavy separation between the strips or bars. The ligament orcross-tie between the several strips or bars is a protection againstbreakage in shaping or casting the grid and in handling the plate orgrid during the application of the active matter or material and untilthe plate as a whole is completed ready for use, and when fully coveredand coated, if so desired, this ligament or cross-tie can be severed,though it left intact it will not interfere with the operation of theplate when in the battery. The plate or grid of the present invention byreason of bridging or cross-tying' one strip or bar to its adjacentstrip or bar adds utility and value, as it furnishes a positiveassurance that the strips or IOO bars will be maintained in parallelismor alinenient during manufacture, that they will be kept equidistantapart throughout their entire length without any liability of a wavySeparation, and will be protected against breakage in thesubsequent.handling ot' the plate until its linal completion ready foruSe.

The construction of plate or grid shown in Fig. has each ot'its stripsor bars formed with a plurality of longitudinal ribs y ot' the 'fullthickness of the strip or bar, and between the longitudinal ribs on oneface of the plate or grid is formed a plurality et' crossbars t, and onthe opposite face of the strip or bar is formed a plurality ofcross-ribs al, the cross-ribs t and lalternating and furnishing, withthe longitudinal ribs, a Series of pockets or depressions overlappingeach other for the pockets or depressions to receive and retain theactive material.

What If regard as new, and desire to Secure by Letters Patent, is

l. A grid for a storage-battery plate, con- Sisting of an end piece anda plurality of Strips or bars united with the end piece and definitelyseparated from each other a Small distance apart, each Strip or baradapted to receive the active material thereon with thereceiving-surfaces for the material running parallel with the outer sidefaces ol'l .the end piece of the plate and the several strips or barsheld in proper relation one to the other by crosstying adjoininglStrips` or bars, Substantially as described.

2. A grid for a storage-battery plate, cousisting of an end piece and aplurality ot' strips or bars united with the end piece and definitelyseparated one from the other a srnall distance apart, each Strip or baradapted to receive the active material thereon with thereceiving-surfaces for the material running' parallel with the outerSide faces or' the end piece of the plate, and a cross-tie at the lowerend of the plate uniting the strips or bars at their lower end andserving to retain the Strips or bars in proper relation one to theother, substantially as described.

CHARLES H. VHITING.

l/Vitnesses:

ARTHUR H. VALKER, JAS. U. CLANCY.

